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This is really pretty amazing. In March of 2008, some reseachers at Berkeley found some "recordings" by a French inventor that predated Edison. Sounds like the guy made a device, called a phonautograph, that recorded detailed visual representation of sound. These researchers figured out a way to turn those visual recordings into actual sounds. They've just released a number of new audio. It's not the best sounding stuff in the world but it's an amazing concept.

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I happened upon this doc from an organization called Project Focus that has the specific (yet expansive) mission "to educate, inspire, and empower local communities in Southwestern Uganda and the United States."

Interesting to think about what it must be like to have never used the internet. I especially like the sound of a Ugandan seeing the internet for the first time toward the end of the piece.

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New NPR Website

In case you haven't been over to see it. New NPR website launched a couple days ago. This video has NPR's Scott Simon explaining the new features. One commenter on YouTube says "This is﻿ a beautiful web site! Will this help avoid layoffs?"

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The BBC's weekly environmental programme, One Planet, goes on an American road-trip. The Englishmen see big cars, generous people, and the inventor of lithium-ion batteries. All on the road to Copenhagen.

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Elizabeth Hauke's documentary 'The Sound of Disease "examines the use of sound in the diagnosis of disease, and features the ground-breaking work of Prof Dan Lloyd, who converts the data in brain scans into music to identify otherwise 'invisible' diseases."Elizabeth Hauke is an independent radio presenter and producer of Short Science (www.shortscience.co.uk), a weekly science radio show and podcast. She also makes freelance packages and documentaries.

"The german Alfred-Wegener-Institute is transmitting a MP3-livestream from Antarctica. They put four hydrophones 70 m underneath the shelf ice and 90 m above the ocean ground through drilled holes in the thick ice sheet. In close proximity to the open water the microphones catch the calls of sea mammals living in this remote region."

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Workers in China get severe nerve damage at a factory that makes touch screens for Apple. Workers claim that the poisoning -- from an illegal chemical used to increase the speed of manufacture -- occurred on the floor that makes iPhones.Apple will not comment.

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The artist Marcus Coates recorded the dawn chorus in English woodlands; he then slowed down the recordings, and filmed human singers perform the newly approachable songs in everyday English settings. Then, he speeded the footage back up again. The sound is extraordianary – and in this case, so is the video.

Audio Documentary Europe

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Playtime: 5 minutes 40 seconds

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A man describes having a cochlear implant and hearing birdsong for the first time; another recalls the sounds of Britain during World War II. Two items in BBC Radio 4's take on citizen journalism, iPM.

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Some of the masters of long form story telling were on hand at The New School in NYC for a panel hosted by Pro Publica. I watched the first 45 seconds. It was okay.
Just kidding. They promise to have the whole video posted today sometime. So put down your smart phone, get off facebook, stop your tweeting and listen, whippersnappers.
In the mean time I found it here:

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Be like Radiolab, On The Media, Public Radio International, RTE DocOnOne, PRX, Third Coast Festival and many more. Join us on Twitter @AudioDocs! You could win 1 MILLION DOLLARS (not from us but, you know, you could somehow).

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After three years of linking in the wilderness, AudioDocumentary.org has company! We would like to offer a full-throated endorsement to the new audio curating site, Audiofiles. In case you haven't seen it (or read about it), Audiofiles is similar in concept to AudioDocumentary.org in that it is an independant site that curates links to radio and audio pieces available free online (you'll even see a number of things AD has featured on there). It doesn't feature any original content like AD and perhaps tends more toward main-stream American public radio ala NPR. Audiofiles, however, adds crowd-sourcing via Twitter integration so that the curating spigot is turned to 11. It also allows users to save links by signing in with Twitter. It's a cool twist on the idea of audio links curating and we hope everyone will check it out!

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This American Life's gutsy and thorough, 1-hour redaction of their wildly popular episode "Mr. Daisey Goes to the Apple Factory." An insightful and probing meditation on the difference between fact and fiction. TAL lays out its own mistakes nakedly and outlines everything they can discern about the story's truth or falsity.